You guys, this is it...the final day in the blog hop!
Your last chance to win goodies from all the authors and the rafflecopter! So make sure to
check out every single author, enter as much as you can, read and enjoy all the gruesomely
​dark posts everyone has put up, and enjoy the final hop!
​

I currently have four books on sale - all post-apocalyptic, dystopian or paranormal. 
Out of the Dark #1 (book two releases next month)
Odium 1 The Dead Saga
Thicker than Blood #1
​Limerence 1 The Obsession Series

​Make sure to pick up your copies before they go back up to full price. The four of them will cost you less than $4, but at full price they should be $15.96 so it's a really great deal.

Here's the link -->  amzn.to/2zd30P5​

Also, make sure to check out the charity zompoc anthology which released last month - TREASURE CHESTS. ALL proceeds go towards Breast Cancer Care and it's filled with so many magnificent stories by some amazing writers. Go grab your copy!
​Here's the link --> ​amzn.to/2i1MCxW

​





​

I held on to the straps of the backpack while I walked through the forest. Without Conrad’s continuous chatter it was quiet. Too quiet in fact. The noise inside my head was getting louder. What started out as a quiet hush in my ears, was now almost a raging storm. Winds howling,
the crackle of thunder in the background. I needed a distraction from myself. From my wicked
yet equally delightful thoughts.
Yet I was alone.
Again.
That bastard Conrad really screwed me over by trying to kill me.
My boots crunched over broken twigs and dried out leaves and I thought about what I would do when I got to the coast. Conrad had been looking forward to the women. Idiot hadn’t considered that they would all be dead—or at least mindless zombies. He was still thinking short term, and that they would be sunbathing in tiny bikinis, soaking up some rays and topping up their tan. He was stupid enough to believe that parts of the world could still be untouched by the virus.

Of course, I knew that wouldn’t be the case.

The disease which had ravaged, first America, and then the world, had killed everyone.
Well, almost everyone. Those that survived were minimal and far between. Either way, no
one was taking the time out to sunbathe anymore.
And me, what would I do when I got there? What was my big plan for this?
I’d told Conrad I was a drifter, with nowhere to go and free time to spare. That was at least
partly true. And once he’d seen what I could and would do, he’d accepted that to try and take
me on would result in his own demise... hence his early departure earlier.
So where was I going and what was my intention?
I’d always had what my older brother called – a screw loose. T
hat’s why he’d been the first one to go.
I’d hacked off his head with a carving night while he slept.
He’d been the first real kill.
And the first of many.
I took great delight in bathing in his blood.
Dad always took my brothers side in every argument. Never saw things from my point of view.
And always thought people like me should be seen and not heard. That’s why I chopped off his ears and left him tied to a deck chair in the back yard. Next doors savage little doggy was always real hungry because he was never fed enough. And good old daddy got to watch me staring
as that doggy lapped at the blood that trailed down the side of his face before taking a nice
chunk out of his throat.

Never got to finish off mom though.
That bitch high-tailed it before I could take her apart piece by rotten piece.
She always wanted to cure me. Cure me! As if there was something wrong with me and not the rest of the world. She believed the church could make me right again. Make me whole again. That I didn’t have to be like this. That God would save me… she didn’t care that I didn’t want to be saved. That I liked the blood and the pain and the screams.
Or that maybe, just maybe, I was the holiest one of all.
After all, I was the one being honest and truthful, delivering justice to the sinners.
I didn’t do it behind closed doors, marking where no one would see.
No, I was proud of the pain I inflicted.

But, no mind, I’d find her, if she wasn’t already dead of course. And then I’d let myself turn into
one of the undead where I could really be free to commit every sin that I ever wanted.
A sound behind me made me flinch, and I put my hand to my waist where the knife I carried was.
I turned slowly, seeing the shadows of at least one person in the trees behind me.

“Hello?” I called, innocently. Sweetly.
I had the voice of an angel, daddy used to say.
And a face that could put anyone at ease, mama used to say...
at least until they got to know me, my brother used to say.


Two men stepped out of the shadows and came into view.  They’d been following me for some time, building up their courage to attack. And it was obvious by their ugly sneers exactly what
they wanted from me, unfortunately for them they had no idea who they were dealing with yet.

“Hey there,” the shorter man said, his eyes washing over me from head to toe. “You alone
out here?”

I nodded and smiled. “Yes, thank God you found me. I’m not sure how much longer I would have made it on my own.”

The taller man leered and came closer. “Don’t you worry, we’ll look after you now. What’s your name?”

“Andy. What’s yours,” I replied.

The two men exchanged a look. “Well, look, this is your lucky day, Andy. Martin and I were
hoping to luck upon someone just like you.” He smiled and took another step forwards,
vicious intent written on his face.
I clasped the handle of my blade tighter, ready to draw it out and cut his throat as soon as he
got close enough. I took a step towards him, closing the distance.

“Really? Why’s that?” I asked innocently.

He had a gun at his waist, but I’d bet every ration I had that there were no bullets in it. Another step closer to me and he was close enough to hurt, but I waited, bided my time, enjoying the
rush of adrenalin that flowed through me, the throb of my heavy heartbeat, the desire to kill,
and the silence in my head that always preceded a kill.

“Ever noticed how lonely it gets at the end of the world?” the shorter man asked, his tongue
licking across his lips.

I looked over at him and gave my warmest smile. “Oh yeah, sometimes I get really lonely.”
“Yeah?”
I nodded. “Yeah, that’s when I hope to bump in to people like you.”

“People like us?” the taller man chuckled. “Is that so?”

“Yep, people like you are the easiest to kill,” I say, waiting a split second as my words register
and I pull out my knife and slash it across his throat in one swift swipe.

He doesn’t even get chance to scream as his hands reach up to his throat and try to stem the wave of blood that gushes from the wound. I laugh, enjoying the fear that flows from him.

“You bitch!” the shorter man screams at me. “You fucking killed him!”

I shrug. “You were going to kill me,” I say exasperated, “what did you think was going to happen?”
He sneers and charges for me, but unlike them my gun does have bullets and I pull it out and shoot him in the stomach. He stops and groans, his hands going to his stomach to press against the red flower blossoming.

“You shot me!” he gasps.

I laugh again. “Stating the obvious.”

“You bitch, I’m going to kill you!”

I shake my head and walk forwards as I put my gun away. He drops to his knees and groans
again and I let him see my knife as I look down on him.

“No, I’m going to kill you,” I say and then I slam my blade right through his fat ugly mouth.
The blade slices through his tongue and cheeks, getting caught on his teeth until I push harder and it penetrates the back of his throat.

I step back as he claws at it, blood flowing from his mouth and stomach in equal measure.
I take a couple of steps back and sit down on the ground, before pulling my backpack off my shoulders so I can get something to eat out of it.
Killing always makes me hungry.
​I think that's how I know that I'm meant to be one of them... one of the undead.

Today has been a good day, I decide.
I even met some people to keep me company.

The shorter man falls to the side, his gaze still on me as his life drains away. His body twitches every once in a while to let me know he’s not completely dead yet. I enjoy the silence that surrounds us. As if even the forest is afraid of me. I live on the fear.
I finally put away my food and shoulder my backpack again before going over to him to retrieve
my knife.
I crouch down and look at him. There’s the smallest movement in his eyes still and I smile.

“You know people really shouldn’t underestimate women. People have been doing that to me my whole life, and it never fails to surprise me. Women are dangerous. Maybe more so than men, because you never suspect us to do these sorts of things.”
I grab the blade and after a hard tug I get it free from his face. I wipe it off on his jacket
and stand back up.
"Never underestimate a woman," I tut.

When I look back down he’s still watching me and I can’t decide if he’s dead yet or not, but just 
​in case he is, I say;

“By the way, my name is Andy, short for Andrea.”

Copyright Claire C. Riley 2017
​

www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/f4d6d07716/?

Thanks so much for joining me on this years blog hop. 

Best

​Claire

Welcome everyone to the October Frights 2017 Blog Hop!
Prepare to be chilled, thrilled and erm... something else that rhymes with those two words
​that's as equally horrific!

​This hop will be six days of horror and paranormal themed posts. From poems, to stories, to meet and greets to graphics, and of course there will also be lots of giveaways too!
​Make sure to visit each author to see what's in store for you!

Here's the full line-up for the month. Make sure to visit each author!
​

So, what am I bringing  to this BLOG HOP? I'm bringing you a story. It's one I've been working on for a while, and I'm hoping to get it out as a novella later this year/early next year... at some point.
​ My calendar is a flaky bitch so don't commit me to any of this.
​But I do love this story. It's dark and kinda really fucked up if I'm being honest. 
​Enjoy!

All Good Things
Part One


The sound of the bullet hitting the zombie in its bloated stomach was quiet, almost non-existent from this distance. Just a soft thwack and then nothing. I looked through my scope, took aim
and shot at it again, watching its body barely react to the damage my bullets were doing to its
soft mush of internal organs. It kept on moving towards its food source; the petite young Asian woman trapped in her car.
She was still unconscious, and my lips curled in a sly grin as I
thought about the nasty surprise she would get when she woke up to teeth ripping her slender body apart.

“You done fuckin’ around, Andy?”

I looked away from the scope long enough to glare at Conrad. My lips pulled back over my
teeth as I smiled at him. But there was nothing nice about my smile. Or me for that matter. He shook his head and sat back down on the ground before letting out an angry breathe.
“You’re fucked in the head, you know that, right?” he muttered.
“Yeah, yeah.” I said, looking back through the scope again.

Conrad and I had been together for a couple of weeks now, and he was okay. A bit of a pussy
at times, no stomach for the sight of blood or gore, which, given the current situation of the world, was hilariously ironic.

The zombie had reached the back of the brown suburban, attracted by the hiss of the car’s
engine that was still wrapped around a lamp post. Conrad and I had been sleeping in an abandoned strip joint just off the main drag off Pacific highway. It was a little town full of self-appreciating assholes that had always thought they were better than me, but it was where I
had grown up, and for some ungodly known reason, I had never left. The funny thing was, all those fuckers were dead now, or at least undead, so I guessed I wasn’t the asshole after all.

The fat zombie with the receding hairline had reached the front of the car now, and my grin
grew as I watched it reach in through the driver’s window, grab a handful of the Asian woman’s hair and begin dragging her back out through the window. Obviously impatient for its mid-afternoon snack, it began chewing on her when she was barely halfway through. My blood
felt alive watching the horror unfold.

She awoke with a start, her hands hazily reaching around to grab hold of the thing that was
now chewing on her collarbone, and as teeth found flesh and the blood began to flow, she
began to scream. Loudly. So loudly she’d likely attract every dead man walking in a half mile radius. The more she screamed, the more it chewed. The more she fought the more it tore
into her. blood spraying out of her like a goddamned blood fountain.

It was like she was damn well serenading me with those screams.

“Do it, man, take her down.” Conrad pleaded next to me. But I ignored him, instead closing my eyes and letting her screams and the scent of blood hanging thickly in the air wash over me like the sickly sweet perfume my mother used to wear. “Do it. Just fucking do it!”

I squeezed my eyes even tighter closed, imagining what the woman down their must taste like,
her stringy flesh trapped between my teeth like dental floss, her blood gushing down my throat. I swallowed, feeling thirsty and desperate, hungry for something that I couldn’t describe.

Conrad placed a hand on my shoulder, shaking me from my reverie, and I opened my eyes
back up, seeing a dozen or so more zombies on their way towards the screaming woman. My smile grew bigger. I had no fucking clue how she was still screaming, all I could see was blood.
It seemed there was more on the outside of her than on the inside. Yet she was still fighting for life, clinging on with desperate fingers for something that was already over.

“Fucking’ kill her already, I can’t stand it. All that blood, man,” Conrad whimpered.

I turned to look at Conrad. He stood up, backing away from me, a look of pure disgust on his
face. I grinned, giving him my best horror film smile. The smile that my mother used to stay
could turn a heart to stone. I smiled and he continued to back away from. Really, I was surprised that he was acting so shocked. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen me at my worst before. This? This
was a drop in the ocean of the things I liked, and he knew it.

I turned back to my gun, staring down the scope and lining the woman up in it. She was still
alive, but her eyes held that glazed over expression of someone on the verge of death. The verge of death and the verge of rebirth. I was jealous of her; jealous of the second life she was getting. The things that this dumb bitch would be able to do now, and all in the name of death.

I loved it.
I hated it.
I wanted it.
I was afraid of it.
I was desperate for deaths sweet embrace.
To kill and torture. To tear away skin from bone with my teeth.

I needed what she had so badly it made my pulse race and my mouth go dry. But I was a fucking baby; too scared to do what needed to be done to give me the ultimate freedom in this world,
and the next.
I squeezed the trigger just as her head twitched in the throes of turning, and my gut churned in both jealousy and satisfaction. I killed her for good, letting the horde of death walkers descend
on her body, tearing into it like angry wolves. Stupid bitch didn’t deserve the gift.

“Such a waste,” I heard Conrad mutter to himself.

I stood up, bored with the show now, and I turned to leave, almost stumbling in to him. He held
up his hands in mock defence, almost falling over on to his ass as he stepped to the side. My
gaze slid up him, a sneer on my face.

“This world ain’t all about pussy, man,” I said before walking away.

“Well it ain’t all about killing either!” he argued back.

I turned to face him again, my gun tight in my grip. “You sure about that?”

He shifted uneasily. I made him nervous—good. I made most people nervous. And that was just how I liked it. In a world that was less dog eat dog and more man eat man, I wanted people to be afraid of me.

I craved their fear.
I craved the violence.
I craved the death and destruction.

“I’m just saying that I could have had some fun with her first,” he muttered with a scowl.

I sneered. “You still can. Have at her.” I pointed to the bloody mess of destruction where the woman was and laughed darkly as Conrad shuddered.

“You’re fucked up.”
“As is this world now,” I replied and walked away.

He could keep his judgmental thoughts to himself, I had seen the fucked up things that he
​liked to do.


​copyright Claire C. Riley

Make sure to come back tomorrow for part two!
​Below is a link to a huge Rafflecopter giveaway we're hosting, so make sure to go enter it!

See you tomorrow!

​Claire